(Bloomberg).Lieberman’s jump in popularity may boost the coalition- building efforts of front-runner Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud, while undermining prospects for peace with the Palestinians. Netanyahu’s lead over Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni’s ruling Kadima party has grown as Israel’s war in Gaza raised voter concern about security.
“With Lieberman in the wings, Netanyahu looks less hawkish,” said Uri Dromi, a political analyst who was a spokesman for former Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin. “He can say, look, the Likud is not so right-wing. It is about security.”
The Moldovan-born Lieberman, 50, is competing for votes with Netanyahu, a former prime minister who opposes withdrawal from Jewish settlements in the West Bank. Netanyahu, 59, also may siphon votes from Kadima if Lieberman makes him appear more centrist, said Avraham Diskin, a political scientist at Jerusalem’s Hebrew University.
